1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device management system a management client, a controller server, and a method for managing device usage.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, OA devices such as copiers, printers, etc., are widely used in many offices to improve the efficiency of office work. For example, a copier may be arranged in each section of a company and used by employees to make copies of documents. In addition, a printer may be arranged in each work group within a section to print documents output from terminal devices (such as personal computers, etc.) of the employees.
In recent years so-called “multifunction devices” have been widely used. Such multifunction devices may perform copier functions, scanner functions, printer functions, etc. Such multifunction devices may copy papers, print documents, and also read documents while serving as a scanner so as to acquire image data from the documents.
A plurality of such OA devices may be connected with each other through a Local Area Network (LAN), etc. In such an arrangement each of the OA devices may be operated by manipulation of user terminal devices.
Even if such OA devices are operable by manipulation of user terminal devices, the users must still go to the place where a corresponding OA device is located for some operations. For example, when printing a document from a user's terminal device, the user must go to the printer to get the printed paper. In addition, when copying any papers, the user must go to the copier to operate the copier.
Hence, the efficiency with which office work can be performed depends on the location of the OA device. That is, if the OA device is located far from the user, then the efficiency of the office work may decline, and the cost for managing the system may increase.
To determine whether an OA device is arranged in an optimum location, it is necessary to monitor the usage of each device. Conventionally, the usage of each device is monitored based on a counter value of each device or the number of papers consumed by a user through each printer, etc. For example, a system administrator may sum up the counter values of each copier, to thereby monitor and manage the usage of the OA device in each section.
However, in such case, no consideration is given as to whether the OA device of a predetermined section has been used by a user from another section. Thus, the counter values do not necessarily accurately indicate the usage context of the OA device, as used by the users from a predetermined section. Therefore, the usage context of the OA device can not be optimally managed, according to each section of the company.
Thus, it is difficult to determine whether an OA device is arranged in an optimum location, or whether an optimum number of OA devices have been arranged. Consequently, in such circumstances, it is difficult to enhance the efficiency of office work, and it is difficult to reduce the cost of managing the system.
Further, to use an OA device such as a printer connected to a LAN, it is necessary to install software for driving the OA device. Installation of software is also required when using a new OA device. Because such installation is particularly troublesome, an easy process for installing the software into the OA device is desired.